July 3, 2008
From St. EOM’s birthday party, we are on to Apalachicola for swimming, oysters, and Tupelo Honey with friend and storyteller Frank Venable.
Maggie keeps saying over and over again, “Mommy, going beach, Mommy, going beach.”
Don’t miss Working the Miles by Joe York, a tribute to the men and women of 13 Mile Oyster Company, honoring Tommy Ward who like his father before him, has served as a guardian of the Apalachicola Bay.
July 1, 2008
This week we are off to the house in Seale and to the woods and Museum of Wonder. Mostly, we will play in the garden, swing, walk, run in the creek, sit on the porch and look at the trees…
But, Seale is home to many a folk artist including John Henry Toney, Buddy Snipes and Butch, of course.
The Friday night auction at the Possum Trot in Seale is not to be missed. Goodies abound.
April 23, 2008
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our annual Alabama Chanin picnic. It was a great year – if a little windy.
From our post at Style.com this morning:
Fashionistas, storytellers, artists, musicians, food enthusiasts, and many others got together for two days of eating, design, shopping, and general revelry this past Saturday and Sunday. The occasion was the sixth annual Alabama Chanin Picnic and the Alabama Studio Weekend. Those who made the road trip to the town of Florence in northern Alabama were treated to the opening of the Alabama Chanin Studio store; fried chicken and oysters at Pickett Place; and soul food, barbecue, and dessert at the annual picnic on the banks of the Tennessee River. Additional events included tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rosenbaum Home, the music and stories of the Muscle Shoals Sound and the Swampers, and tales of Native American heritage at the Wicahpi Wall and Healing Circle. Each story led to another story, to more laughter and good times. The weekend events culminated with dinner, celebrating the best of all things Southern on the grounds of the Helen Keller birthplace, followed by moonshine, dessert, and the music of Nashville’s Joshua Black Wilkins at GAS Studio in Tuscumbia.
March 12, 2008
The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles
William Morris said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” This is the essence of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Joanne Ingersoll and The Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design have put together an amazing show called Evolution/Revolution – The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles which runs from February 11 – June 15, 2008.
We are honored to have two pieces included in the show. (A detail from one of our “Textile Stories” quilts is below.)
But, more important is that the Exhibition Notes are a wonderful document of the work that is going on today. While they are extremely beautiful, they are also beautifully poignant for the times in which we are living and working. Joanne has done an amazing job of addressing a difficult theme which could have easily lost its way and, consequently, given us a clear vision of where we are headed in the future.
Download the PDF version of the exhibition notes here thanks to RISD:
http://www.alabamachanin.com/Articles/EvoRevo_exhib.NotesF
And read a review of the show by Greg Cook here:
http://gregcookland.com/journal/2008/03/evolutionrevolution-at-risd.html
I am hoping that the show will have legs and travel…
February 3, 2008
All of us @ Alabama Chanin send a warm thank you to Penelope Green for this great article in The New York Times about the present, and future, of Slow Design as an extension of the Slow Food Movement.
January 1, 2008
All of us at Alabama Chanin are thankful to the New York Times for including us in this Sunday Magazine article two weeks ago:The Coats (and Dresses and Shirts) of Utopia
But today, I am thankful and smiling about a conversation that I had with one of the team members who traveled to our offices for the photo shoot:
He said, “Embrace the perfection.”
I looked at him blankly. “What did you say? Embrace the perfection?”
“Well,” he continued, “everything always works out for the best, right?”
I laugh and reply, “Yes, it certainly seems to…”
He says, “Then the best thing you can do is embrace the perfection of this moment because it is taking you to that future where everything always works out for the best anyway.”